BIGGAME_117_fl.jpg Stanford student David Louk (21) dyed his hair red and complete got in the spirit of beating Cal on the Stanford campus. Stanford students repelled a caravan of Cal band members who'd set out on their annual foray to wake up Stanford's president by playing in front of his house at 3 a.m. Freshman had received intelligence that the attack was coming and deployed to resist, backed by a cell-phone comm network. Stanford Axe Committee chair Seth Cairo knows about this and other incidents.
11/18/05 Palo Alto CA Frederic Larson San Francisco Chronicle

Photo: Frederic Larson

BIGGAME_117_fl.jpg Stanford student David Louk (21) dyed his hair...

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BIGGAME_058_fl.jpg Cal student Melissa Marsh (21) (right) turns in a red shirt in exchange for a blue shirt from the rally committe table for the Big Game from Christy Siojo (21) at Sproul Plaza in Cal Berkeley campus. Nate Hedberg, the chair of Cal's Rally Committee, takes a dim view of pranks like pouring red Kool Aid in a fountain and splashing red paint on the cal "C" painted on the hill above campus (both of these were done by infiltrators in recent days.) Nate says the last good prank he heard of was when Cal students unfurled a banner from Hoover Tower two years ago. Meanwhile, at Stanford, an article in the Stanford Daily boasted of the two above-named pranks and also of the liberation of numerous Stanford-owned home plates stolen over the years by Cal frat Phil Kappa Tao (2335 Piedmont Ave.) (The frat hasn't yet commented on the incident but is supposed to give a statement Thursday.) On Wednesday morning, according to a junior RA in a frosh dorm, Stanford students repelled a caravan of Cal band members who'd set out on their annual foray to wake up Stanford's president by playing in front of his house at 3 a.m. Freshman had received intelligence that the attack was coming and deployed to resist, backed by a cell-phone comm network. Stanford Axe Committee chair Seth Cairo knows about this and other incidents.11/18/05 Berkeley CA Frederic Larson San Francisco Chronicle

Photo: Frederic Larson

BIGGAME_058_fl.jpg Cal student Melissa Marsh (21) (right) turns in...

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BIGGAME_076_fl.jpg Stanford Axe Committee chair Seth Cairo (21) a senior at Stanford wants to stay on another year at Stanford just for football season. Stanford, an article in the Stanford Daily boasted of the two above-named pranks and also of the liberation of numerous Stanford-owned home plates stolen over the years by Cal frat Phil Kappa Tao (2335 Piedmont Ave.) (The frat hasn't yet commented on the incident but is supposed to give a statement Thursday.) On Wednesday morning, according to a junior RA in a frosh dorm, Stanford students repelled a caravan of Cal band members who'd set out on their annual foray to wake up Stanford's president by playing in front of his house at 3 a.m. Freshman had received intelligence that the attack was coming and deployed to resist, backed by a cell-phone comm network. 11/18/05 Palo Alto CA Frederic Larson San Francisco Chronicle

Photo: Frederic Larson

BIGGAME_076_fl.jpg Stanford Axe Committee chair Seth Cairo (21) a...

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BIGGAME_017_fl.jpg Nate Hedberg, the chair of Cal's Rally Committee, takes a dim view of pranks like pouring red Kool Aid in a fountain and splashing red paint on the cal "C" painted on the hill above campus (both of these were done by infiltrators in recent days.) Nate says the last good prank he heard of was when Cal students unfurled a banner from Hoover Tower two years ago. Meanwhile, at Stanford, an article in the Stanford Daily boasted of the two above-named pranks and also of the liberation of numerous Stanford-owned home plates stolen over the years by Cal frat Phil Kappa Tao (2335 Piedmont Ave.) (The frat hasn't yet commented on the incident but is supposed to give a statement Thursday.) On Wednesday morning, according to a junior RA in a frosh dorm, Stanford students repelled a caravan of Cal band members who'd set out on their annual foray to wake up Stanford's president by playing in front of his house at 3 a.m. Freshman had received intelligence that the attack was coming and deployed to resist, backed by a cell-phone comm network. Stanford Axe Committee chair Seth Cairo knows about this and other incidents.11/18/05 Berkeley CA Frederic Larson San Francisco Chronicle

UC Berkeley student leader Nate Hedberg says he likes a good prank as much as the next guy, but the stunts he's been hearing about during this year's Cal-Stanford Big Game run-up strike him as scarcely worthy of the name.

Dumping Cardinal-red Kool-Aid in a fountain on the Cal campus. Splashing red paint on the big "C" on the hillside over Memorial Stadium. Infiltrating a Cal fraternity to reclaim home plates allegedly lifted from Stanford baseball fields over the years.

"If they could pull off something impressive that was entirely legal and didn't destroy anything, especially in broad daylight, I'd give them credit," said Hedberg, who chairs Cal's school-spirit-boosting Rally Committee.

The latest pranks are "pretty much old hat," he said.

The Cal-Stanford football rivalry, which began in 1892, has produced some memorable mischievous student tricks. Stealing the Axe for Stanford from an armored car (1930) and from a display case (1953). Stenciling bear prints on the side of Stanford's Hoover Tower (1960). Retaking the Axe for Stanford by ruse (1973). Printing a fake issue of the Daily Cal claiming that Stanford won the 1982 game that ended with "The Play."

But truly outrageous stunts have become rare. Students on both campuses said the change is due partly to university officials' lower tolerance for behavior that causes even minor property damage. Security is tougher, too: Stanford police, for example, guard high-visibility targets on campus during Big Game week.

And some of the stunts aren't considered very entertaining, such as a video that a group of Stanford students posted on the Web this week in an attempt to make fun of their Cal counterparts.

"The video is sophomoric, of questionable taste, insensitive and not very funny, in our opinion," Stanford officials said in a statement Thursday. "It does not accurately represent either Stanford or Cal students."

Stanford pranksters once unleashed red mice -- the color was closer to pink -- in the Cal band room, and the rodents scattered to die and rot, said Erin Proudfoot, Cal's Alumni Association program manager.

Chetan Amar, a second-year psychology student at Cal, said he's heard the stories of such long-ago pranks as stealing a rival band member's tuba.

"Right now, it's just painting the 'C' or something ridiculous like that," he said, enjoying a midday break and breathtaking view this week on the grass next to the giant hillside insignia, with its odd patch of red glimmering through a sticky new coat of yellow that a Cal student had applied.

Naturally, the view from the Stanford side is different. The Stanford Daily reported the three incidents in gung-ho fashion this week, anonymously quoting a student about the need to up the ante on Cal.

Stanford student Seth Cairo, who heads the school's Axe Committee, said sticking it to Cal for past insults is not only righteous but overdue.

"There's a general animosity by one school against the other," he said. "I guess it dates back to the 1890s, when they were founded and they were jealous of us. They were mean, and now we're just turning it around."

He characterized the recent salvo from Stanford as unusual.

"Over the past couple of years, I seem to remember not hearing about pranks," he said. "Every year, though, I'm on this campus, and I see what Berkeley does to us. Last year, they stole the 'S' on Stanford Stadium.

"In the past," he said, "they've also spray-painted little yellow and blue bears around campus."

"Some Stanford students went up to reappropriate some home plates that were stolen from our baseball stadium over the past 10 years," he said. "They were all taken by the same frat up at Berkeley, so they snuck up there and got 'em, and now they're back at Stanford."

"It is true that we were the victims of a burglary of our keepsake home plates that have been donated to our chapter house by members of every pledge class for the past 40 years," he wrote in an e-mail. "Without discussing the origin of these plates, let us make one thing clear: It's about time they sacked up and retaliated. This has been going on for a pretty long time and, quite frankly, storing all these plates has become quite a logistical nightmare.

"Their crimes will only assist us in spring cleaning," he wrote, "and we encourage these sly students from the South Bay to return and pick up the remaining 36 or so plates stored in our attic in order to make room for future sports paraphernalia."

A fourth incident, confirmed by Deputy Ken Bates of Stanford's Public Safety Department, took place at 3:30 Wednesday morning on the Stanford campus. Responding to noise complaints, officers met a caravan of six cars.

"They stopped the cars and found that these were members of the Cal band's trumpet section," he said. "I think we identified about 35 and warned them about disturbing the peace. And they were sent on their way."

The band members were headed for Stanford President John Hennessy's house to jolt him awake with blaring brass, said Stanford junior Kavi Vyas, a resident adviser in the all-freshman dorm.

"They never made it," he said. "The president's house was protected (by) some very spirited freshmen. I was told that every year, this is a tradition of Cal, and this year the freshmen said, 'This isn't happening.' "

Students ambushed one of the Cal vehicles, senior Melissa Luu-Van recounted in an e-mail.

"They were armed with not only water balloons," she wrote, "but some fruit, laundry detergent and red paint, which they applied liberally to the car."